he said 22,000 armed forces there are, quote, self defense teams. that's his words. let's bring in cnn's barbara starr, over at the pentagon for us. we have new information, barbara, in how the u.s. sees the next few days. and these will be tense days unfolding. >> reporter: indeed they will, wolf. we have learned behind the scenes the obama administration believes some time in the next couple of days, two, three days or so, vladimir putin will make a decision on his next move. the big question is, will he put more military force into crimea or possibly into eastern ukraine. u.s. officials will tell you that if putin's intentions are quite opaque right now. anybody who knows what he's thinking probably doesn't really know. they're very concerned about it. but here's their calculation. they feel that putin has essentially consolidated his grip, if you will, on crimea. he doesn't have to put anymore into that area. but he may have to make a decision about the rest of eastern ukraine. he has 150,000 troops on the border that have been conducting that e